Who Wants a “Personality” Column Without Personality?

Here is the question in a nutshell. “Do IABC’s professional communicators lack so much creativity that to pen a “personality” column for the organizaiton’s international magazine, Communication’s World, that a list 12 boring questions has to be provided?”

In a post  by Jessica Burnett-Lemon, a senior editor at IABC, on IABC’s Linked-In group, she queried the group for submissions. Now I am not saying the idea is Burnett-Lemon’s, just that she was the author of the post. One might never really know the real origin of the idea for the column.

IABC’s Communication World magazine is looking for entries to the “Personality” column

        The purpose of CW’s “Personality” column is to get better acquainted with business  communication professionals from around the world, and to have some fun in the process.    Each column highlights a communication professional’s candid, sincere answers to the  following questions. 



           1. Name, position, company, company location, and contact info (phone/e-mail) 

           2. What historical figure do you most identify with and why?
           3. Which word or phrase do you think is overused right now? 

           4. How would you explain your profession to a child? 

           5. What did you have to learn the hard way? 

           6. What do you sing or hum when you’re alone? 

           7. What talent would you most like to have? 

           8. If you could choose another profession, what would it be? 

          9. What movie character would you like to portray and why? 

          10. Is there a book that changed your perspective on life? 

          11. What’s the best reward for a job well done? 

          12. What is your personal motto?

Maybe it is just me, but when I think of a “Personality” column, dreams of being entertained and informed by the quick wit and creative writing of the author quickly come to mind. Forcing potential columnists to answering a set of 12 stock questions is not a personality profile; it is a 5th grade writing assignment.

Visions of the unforgettable columns of Erma Bombeck, Will Rogers, Molly Ivins (being from Austin I must list her), Mike Royko and Frank Pelatowski (you know, the world’s oldest columnist), all race though my pea-brained mind. They knew how spin a tale, to keep a reader’s interest and when it is all over, leave you mouth watering for more.

Perhaps this lack of creativity is a generational difference, spawned out of the university systems that now feature mass communication schools, instead of the real life hard knocks that journalism schools and newspapers brought to editors, writers and even us lowly photographers. Letting a columnist spin his own tail is much more appealing in every way imaginable, than reading every other month how Joe and Jane Blow tell the little ones “what mommy and daddy do for a living?”

It is a sad comment on life when a fake news show, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with John Stewart, provides some of the best journalism and commentary.

We all know where this “easy way out journalism” originated, the Sunday New York Times. Renowned personalities answering a predefined set of questions to enthrall the young cross-over readers from People Magazine. Vladimir Putin answering what book he is currently reading, might carry a little more weight for an international audience, than knowing that Ed Lallo of Austin, Texas likes to sing “I’m Henry the Eighth I Am” by the Herman’s Hermits while naked in the shower. Now there is a a photo you don’t want to see, even if only in your mind.

Our local IABC chapter tried a similar concept for the online newsletter. It was an unfortunate day for the poor writer interviewing me for my place in the chronicles of IABC Austin history. I must say the questions were very, very (oh I missed one more very) similar. And of course I was a little indignant, for which I must apologize effusely to the poor interviewer. The questions the interviewer asked did not defined me, what I did for a living or what I wanted to convey to the readers.

Ok here is the jest of all this rambling, a “Personality Column” in IABC’s Communication World would be great. Let the column be filled with personality flowing from the authors words, not some milk toast set of questions.

Drop the 12 questions and instead replace them with a set of interesting guidelines for submission of columms by the organization’s membership. I would think that in IABC’s worldwide organization, we could find six creative writers a year to fill the column’s space.

CW is filled with enough milk toast; it is time that CW also stands for Creative Writing.  As communicators we would reap a much larger benefit.